The Battle Of Algiers – ****

Finally, a movie “review”. Yup, I finally saw something decent that passed my 3DMT™.

The Battle of Algiers was a good flick. Very poignant for today’s news. However, that’s not the only reason to watch it. The story’s good and interesting as are the film’s techniques. By techniques I mean the framing of the plot (yes, normally I hate frame-tales, although this has a variation on that) and the character development. The other thing about the movie, is when you finish watching it, you’ll immediately ask yourself- ‘how the hell did they film that scene, or this scene and make it look so real?’, and then you start googlin’ to find out.

I’ll try to stay out of the political poop but rent this movie, watch it, then read about the movie. It was very controversial for it’s time: people were worried that it wasn’t impartial as some production costs came from the Algerian government, some people thought it would stir up revolution/agitation, etc. Even in the very near past, people in our government have been watching it to see if they can learn anything useful from the movie in dealing with Iraq. The ironic thing is, if they think they can (learn in so much as in how to control the Iraqis), then they’re missing the movie’s message.

4 stars.

Sidenote- read the Ebert review (see link above), then read his original review from 1968 to contrast it. The 2004 review is pretty interesting in comparison.